Boys Will Be Boys! And a Confession

Yes, the news is true! Baby Miller #2 is a boy! We just got back from a weekend in Idaho Falls with our families and we had fun telling them our news. Even though a lot of them wanted us to be having a girl, I think they're happy with a little boy instead. This will make four grandsons for my parents and four grandsons in a row for Tyson's parents (they have three granddaughters and two more grandsons to add to the bunch). My mom's parents' first four grands were boys as well so she's following in their footsteps. The oldest of those four grandsons of my grandparents' is my brother Aaron.

I'm very excited that we're having a boy. Now. Here is where my confession comes in. I was so sure that this was going to be a girl. And I think it was because I really wanted a girl next. In my mind as I pictured us telling our families I thought of us saying, "It's a girl!", but then I'd quickly say to myself, "Hold on, this could be a boy." Yet I still had this idea of "girl" in my head. With Brycen I could just tell he was a boy. I had the feeling and just knew it in my heart and soul. With this one I think it was more of a desire than anything. When we got into the doctor's office and she started the ultrasound I was getting nervous for the big news. Then she turned to Brycen and said, "Time to see if you're going to have a little brother or little sister! And it's a...brother!" And there was the proof...boy parts and all. And my stomach sank and I was bummed. I hate to admit that I wasn't happy with the news. This is my child we're talking about here. Tyson was there and just laughed when he heard the news. He was excited.

Tyson went back to work and Brycen and I went back home. I walked in the front door and got Brycen some lunch. I was truly sad when I got home and totally bummed out. I felt like crying. I wanted a girl so bad and now I'd have to wait for the next time around where hopefully we'd have a girl. I walked around the house and tried to snap myself out of the sadness I was feeling. We would be leaving for Idaho that night and I still had a lot to do. I pulled myself together to do it and got excited to see our families.

We stayed at Tyson's parents' house over the weekend and enjoyed a lot of family time, including Amber's two baby showers on Saturday. On Friday night Tyson and I had the opportunity to go to the temple with my parents, grandparents, Che', and Adam for Adam to go through the temple for the first time. I hadn't really thought about the baby much that day but was so excited to be at the temple with family. The session had barely started when the baby entered my mind. I thought about him the entire time I was in the temple...and it was wonderful. I felt at peace with the fact that we were having a boy and I was all of a sudden really excited. I thought about him being close in age to Amber's baby, Tayen (coming in March), and Aaron and Britney's little guy, Boston (almost 6 months old). I thought about these three boys playing together and most likely being in the same grade. I thought about a name for this little boy and couldn't get it out of my head the entire time we were there. And I felt an incredibly strong love for this little boy. I also felt a lot of guilt for how I'd been feeling about him over the last couple of days. My eyes filled with tears thinking about the thoughts I had about wishing so badly he was a girl instead. I hoped and prayed that he wasn't sitting up there in heaven learning how his mom felt about him while I was having those thoughts. That is still hard for me to think about.

By the time we were finished with the session I felt so peaceful and lucky to be the mom of such a special little boy. Over the weekend I talked to family and friends about this little boy. They all told us how fun it will be to have two boys together and how they'll be buddies. It made me even more excited to be having a boy.

I hope this little boy knows how excited I am for him to join our family this summer and how much I love him. He's my child, and it doesn't matter if I ever have a girl because these are my children. There's nothing like the love a mother has for her child. It's funny how you look at your child and wonder how you can love another as much as you love them. I did this with Brycen. But now I know it is possible and it's already happening for me. We're truly blessed to be having a boy and I'm so excited for Brycen to have a little brother.

More on Brycen

Brycen is growing up way too fast and doing all sorts of funny things these days. Here are a few:

• He started saying "shhhh" while my mom and Amber were in town back in January. I held my finger up to my mouth to say "shhh" and he did the same thing back. It was quite a surprise!
• Brycen was really attached to me for about 3 days and I loved it. When he was sad he always wanted me to hold him and not Tyson. Usually this is the opposite. He wanted me to hold him when he woke up crying, he wanted me to pick him up during the day...It was wonderful while it lasted!
• Brycen gets put in timeout at least once a day. Timeouts involve sitting in his crib with nothing in it for one minute. I learned in a parenting class that timeouts should be one minute for every year they are old. So for now they are one minute long. But he better watch out, he's two in April!
  
• He calls graham crackers "cookie". If he wants a graham cracker he'll point to the box and say "cookie".
• Brycen loves putting money in his piggy bank. My mom and dad have provided him with probably $10 worth of change just because they love watching him take it to his room and put it in his bank. Thanks for contributing to his mission fund, Mom and Dad! :)
• He broke something for the first time on Monday, January 23, 2012. He had a glass and dropped it. I know. Why the crap did we let him hold a glass? It was one of our rocks glasses, which get used more than anything. Oh well. It's just an object. He was trying to put it on the entertainment center and it dropped, breaking on the carpet. I still worry that we didn't get all the glass picked up but that's another issue!
  

• Brycen likes to sit on the counter while I bake. He'll grab things like measuring cups and pretend like he's putting something in the bowl. On January 24th I was making banana bread and he grabbed my bottle of prenatals and pretended to pour them in. He also grabbed a spoon and pretended to stir. He loves to be in the kitchen with Mom. On the 27th we made a Texas Sheet Cake for Tyson and he sat on the counter and helped me mix the flour and sugar. He loves to pretend like he's helping.
• Brycen really likes to get in the cupboards and pull out the big plastic mixing bowl and all of the wooden spoons. He'll sit on the floor and pretend like he's mixing things. Sometimes I'll throw a few peanuts or raisins in the bowl and he'll stir them around. He loves it! It makes me smile when I'm sitting on the couch at night watching one of my favorite shows and I see a wooden spoon sticking out between the cushions. He loves to play with wooden spoons.
• On February 12th he started saying "bu bye". I called my mom to see if he would say it while I was on the phone with her and he ended up having a 10-minute conversation, ending it with "bu bye". I was so glad Tyson got the video camera out during that time!
  

• The other day he walked into our bedroom and came out with a sock on each hand and holding my deodorant. He also took his pajama bottoms off during that time. Funny kid!

• He loves to sit in his highchair and watch cartoons on Tyson's lap top. We just pull them up on YouTube Sometimes we'll let him sit up to the table in one of the chairs. Lately he's been watching "Small Potatoes", "Tiny Toons", "Looney Tunes", "Pound Puppies", "Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers", and old Mickey cartoons.

Last Night's FHE: Appreciating Music

Normally for family home evening Tyson and I end up discussing a topic and making it about us. Brycen has no idea what is going on. He is getting older now and starting to understand more so we decided to start holding family home evenings for him and focusing everything on him.

I've always been overwhelmed at the idea of planning a family home evening around a child, even though it sounds really fun to do. When I came up with this outline for last night I decided I would share for any other parents who are in the same boat, unsure of what to do for these family home evenings. So here's what I did!

First I discovered the Family Home Evening resource page on the Church website. Wow, that is a huge help! Not sure why I didn't look here before. This page has lessons by topic, activity ideas, videos, music, and many more other helpful resources.

I clicked on the Lessons by Topic tab and decided to start from the beginning with "Appreciating Music". After clicking the topic I found a whole list of articles, lesson ideas, a picture kit, etc. to help me prepare. Since Brycen is still pretty young I decided to go with the story from the Friend listed in the articles titled "Service with a Song" (found here). It was a short and very sweet story about a three year old singing good music at a rest home. Very cute.

When it came time for the lesson, I read the story then I had Tyson read two scriptures: D&C 25:12 and D&C 138:24. We talked to Brycen about how good music is important and what those scriptures mean. Brycen loves music so it was fun talking to him about it.

The activity for the evening was a coloring picture for Brycen:

"Music Makes Me Happy" coloring page found here

And for dessert we had Cake Batter Blondies. You can get the delicious recipe here!

And that was our family home evening! I hope this was helpful for anyone who is like me and trying to get into the groove of teaching the little ones. :)

Got It!

Today Brycen put two words together for the first time: "Got it!" We were playing with his car ramp in his room when one of them went flying. He reached back behind the toy box to get it, and when he finally reached it he said, "Got it!" It took me so off guard, yet it was so exciting! He said it three or four more times before going to bed at 8:00. Most of the time he says a lot of fluent jibberish with a real word mixed in. So this was a big deal! What a milestone for our little man! I'm such a proud mama. :)

Christmas Day

We had such a great Christmas this year! We're lucky to be able to see both of our families on Christmas day. This year we stayed the night at my parents' house and spent Christmas morning with them. We opened presents, had breakfast, then went to church at Amber's ward. Amber, Amy, and I sang "Away in a Manger" for the Christmas program.

Before presents, we all looked in our stockings:

From Santa, Brycen got:

• the Little People Wheelies car ramp with four extra cars
  
• Little People tractor
• "Toy Story" ball
• "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" board book
• Mickey sing-a-ma-jig
• candy
• sippy cup (This cup is fabulous! But Brycen doesn't quite understand how to use it. Once he does we will be in heaven!)
  

Tyson and I only did Santa gifts this year. From Santa Tyson got:

• Jeopardy! on the Wii
• an electric toothbrush
• the second season of "Modern Family"
• the first two seasons of "Parenthood"
• Express button up shirt
• Florence's chocolates
• and a few other things!
  

Santa brought me:

• red TOMS
• Jane Clayson Johnson's book "I Am a Mother"
• necklace from Express
• oodles of makeup
• See's chocolates
• and other fun goodies!
  

Brycen loved his stocking!

Especially his "Toy Story" ball.

He wanted Boston to play...

...as well as everyone else!

Boston was as cute as ever.

He wasn't sure what to think about his duck from Aunt Amy.

Brycen loved his new Mickey coloring book and crayons from Aunt Amy!

Thanks, Aunt Amy!

Mom got a new coat. Super cute!

Dad got some Utes pj pants, as well as a Utes sweatshirt.

Che' got some tools. He's a pretty handy guy to have around!

We made mom and dad a new book from the 2011 year. They really liked it. So did Brycen!

Brycen got a little spoiled this year. With the presents from us combined with presents from grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins, he had more presents than anybody!
He got clothes and these new shoes from Grandma and Grandpa.

Boston got a stuffed cow, a ball, some clothes, and a book from Grandma and Grandpa.

Brycen checking out his Fridge Phonics

Adam and Amber high fiving about his gift card with Mario on the front of it ha ha.

Dad made mom a pretty new bookshelf. Brycen loved it too!

Adam under a pile of boxes and paper

Picture time! This little sweety was such a good sport.

Then it got a little old. Brycen was not interested in getting his picture taken! Poor kids.

After presents and breakfast we got ready to go to church as a family. Sunday is the perfect day for Christmas to land on. It felt so nice going to church with my parents and siblings and showing gratitude for the birth of the Savior. Such a great day!

Brycen taking a coloring break later on

After church we went to Tyson's parents' house for a delicious Christmas dinner and presents. We had Easton's name this year and got him a dodge tag game.

Dustin and Erika got Julie a really pretty picture of the temple.

Kate got a makeup kit from Lillie this year. Can you tell? :) Cute girls!

Jack got a football and Brycen really wanted it.

Christmas with this clan is always a riot! All of those kids have such a blast. It's so much fun!

We had a great time with both of our families this year. We feel very blessed to be part of such wonderful groups of people. We love our families!

Buddy Boy

Our little Brycen is just growing up way too fast! He's been doing some memorable things lately that I wanted to write down:

• Brycen is so funny when the vacuum is on. He's like a dog around a vacuum that doesn't bark. He runs up to it and runs around it, then he tries to run away from it when it gets closer to him. He talks the whole time, kind of awkwardly like he's afraid of it but doesn't want it to look that way. Funny kid.
• He likes to color on EVERYTHING! We can't leave a pen out or he'll go crazy with it. We have to really watch him while he's coloring in his coloring book or something else might get colorful.
  
• Brycen loves to play the piano with me. We play everyday after he wakes up from his nap and has a snack. He'll either sit next to me and "play" (pound) or he'll sit on my lap and "play". I'm hoping this continues so I can put him in lessons when he's older.
• There is a new show on Disney Junior called "Octonauts" and Brycen LOVES it. I think it's really cute and there's always a lesson about an ocean creature, so I like it.
  
• Brycen really likes the video camera. Whenever we use it he immediately wants to watch what was just recorded. Or if we are recording him he'll want to see what we're doing. Yesterday I recorded him talking in his jibberish that we just love so much. He wanted to see what was going on so I turned the screen during recording. He was able to watch himself while being recorded. He thought that was pretty funny and kept laughing and making silly noises at himself.
  

Tyson and I decided this year on our anniversary that it would be fun to make our cards instead of buy them. I made mine then had Brycen color it.

He was pretty proud of his work! And yes, that laundry basket had all sorts of pretty colors on it by the time he was done.